City high-flier is UK's most generous donor

A YOUNG City of London trader has emerged as Britain's most generous philanthropist, giving more than £50million to children's charities in the developing world last year.

Christopher Hohn, 39, little-known outside the reclusive world of hedge-fund traders, set up The Children's Investment Fund (TCI) with his American-born wife Jamie, 40 three years ago.

Accounts just filed show that in the year up to last August 31, the fund gave £50.4m to charity.

While the figure may fall some way short of the extraordinary benevolence of Wall Street billionaire Warren Buffett, who plans to give away his £22bn fortune, it does make Mr Hohn Britain's most munificent man.

'Greed is Good' may still be the predominant slogan echoing through Wall Street and the Square Mile, but 'Giving is Good' is also beginning to be heard.

TCI was specifically set up to funnel a fixed proportion (1 per cent) of assets to its charitable arm, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation.

Hedge funds use unconventional techniques to allow them to prosper in all market conditions. For example, they can bet on falling markets and therefore perform well when shares are going down.

They charge investors a management fee of about 2% and take a 20% cut of any profits, which can run into millions.

Mr Hohn, son of a white Jamaican car mechanic who emigrated to Britain in 1960, graduated from Southampton University and was a Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School, putting him in the top five per cent of his MBA class. He cut his trading teeth on

Wall Street and struck out alone in 2003, setting up the charity link in order to motivate his own performance, according to City sources.
He lives with his wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn in a £2m townhouse in North-West London.

The charity's main focus is helping children in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia and India who have been or are at risk of being orphaned by Aids. In Africa, it is also helping with agriculture, training mentors and supporting educational initiatives.

Estimated to be worth around £80m himself, Mr Hohn is reticent to speak about his good works. 'We're just not really interested in putting more information out there,' said a spokesman for TCI.

'People write about us and that's fine, but Mr Hohn doesn't wish to give any interviews about this.' His 67-year-old father Paul, now retired and living in South East England, said he was very proud of his son's achievements.

'Whatever he's done in life he's given it 110%, from his paper round to his MBA. He's always had a good work ethic and been academically bright.

'He got about 13 O-levels and was a top footballer at the same time, but throughout everything he's always been very unselfish and I suppose that's what is behind his wish to give something back to people who are less well-off than himself.

'He doesn't get his skills with money from me - I'm just an ordinary Joe and his background was quite humble.'

Two years ago, Jamie Cooper-Hohn told the FT that charity was not uppermost in people's minds when they chose to sign up to the fund. 'I would say that about 80% of investors are neutral about that part.

'What they did get was a sense that this is very motivating for Chris. And if he is inspired by what he is doing, his fund will do well and so will they.'

Fellow hedge-fund philanthropist Arpad Busson, who set up a charity to help orphaned children in Eastern Europe and South Africa, said of Mr Hohn and his wife: 'They are an inspiration to all of us.

'I think Chris is one of the best investors and traders of his generation. He is one of the few hedge fund managers to have mastered both disciplines.

'In addition, he and his wife are very astute philanthropists who have taken charitable giving to a new dimension.'